The diner was an endless buffet of disco and pop music, of blue and pink wallpaper, of glitz and beauty lining its tables... yet still with a side of homeliness in its lighting.
Sunset Shimmer was impressed—the grand opening of the secondary branch of Sugarcube Corner was a complete success. She had never seen the original location as busy as this, or in such high spirits. Students filled every single table, talking while enjoying food and drinks. The heady scents of burgers, fries, and ice cream nearly intoxicated her every time she took a breath.
She still wasn't sure what the deal was with the hot-rod automobile resting on top of the building, much less what it had to do with the Sugarcube Corner name, but it fit with both diners' "retro" aesthetics in its own way, at least. Many people—and ponies—tended to fear change, to question and resist its most minute instances, at every turn. Sunset had never understood why, when change had inevitably led to wonderful things every time she'd encountered it in her life. Wonderful things such as the establishment she was seated in, right now.
A pink girl wearing roller skates, and a blue dress as wide and poofy as her pink hair, glided towards Sunset. Sunset's mouth watered eagerly in anticipation of the inevitable culinary joy that was to come.
"Heeeeere you are!" Pinkie Pie said as she arrived at the diner booth, holding two beverages on a tray. "One Super-Duper Citrus Surprise, with low-fat extra-thick whipped cream!" She placed a tall glass of thick orange liquid on the booth table in front of Sunset. "Aaaaand one virgin grape daiquiri!" She placed a similarly-shaped tall glass of thick purple liquid in front of Twilight Sparkle, who was sitting in the same booth across from her.
Sunset chuckled. "Thanks, Pinkie."
Twilight nodded. "Yes, thank you very much. You seem to have really taken to working under the Sugarcube Corner brand."
"You know it!" Pinkie sighed dreamily, clasped hands to her chin. "Somehow, it feels like what I was born to do." She paused, and smiled down at the two girls, before perking back up. "Anyway, you two enjoy! If you need me, I'll be around Sugarcube Corner doing Sugarcube Corner things! Which is here, and what I'm doing right now! Ciao!" Pinkie skated away to serve other customers.
Once she was gone, Sunset looked at her drink with narrowed eyes. Twilight tilted her head and adjusted her glasses, staring at her own drink as well.
They then looked up, pushed each of their drinks across the table, and giggled. "I'm pretty sure we ordered the exact drinks we wanted?" Twilight said. "We didn't make any mistakes, did we?"
"Nope, all Pinkie. Not that I blame her," Sunset said. "Color coordination is a thing." Both girls unwrapped their straws and put them in their drinks. "But yeah. I've always been a grape daiquiri girl." She grinned, showing teeth. "Guess I just like 'em smooth, cool, and purple."
Sunset relished in Twilight's reaction, which consisted of a blush, along with her shifting her eyes back and forth as she looked down at her glass. "Yeah, well, I can think of at least two of those things your drink is that I'm sure I'm not," Twilight said.
"It's a good thing deciding that's not up to you, then," Sunset replied with a wink before taking a sip of her daiquiri. At this point, it was a comfort drink, and it tasted as good as it always did. Something about it relaxed her, allowed her to wash away the worries of any given day in a wave of sugar and tongue-tickling carbonation.
While Sunset didn't have many worries at the moment given where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing, there was no point in taking chances. She took another sip. "Oh, yeah. That's the stuff." She leaned back in her seat with a long exhale and a smile. "You know what? This is already fun. I like this. I'm glad we chose to come here."
"So am I," Twilight said, "though part of me still can't believe that this is where we've chosen for our official first date."
"Really?" Sunset blinked. "Why not?"
"I don't know," Twilight said, with fidgeting fingers. "Don't take this the wrong way, I'm so glad this is finally happening. It's just that... I guess always thought my first date with anyone would be... uh... a little more 'razzle-dazzle?'"
Sunset outright laughed in her seat. "'Razzle-dazzle?' Is that something people actually say in this world?"
"Hey, kids do!" Twilight protested, before adding in a quiet voice, "Kids from... fifteen years ago."
Sunset's expression shifted from amusement to a good-natured, earnest smile. "Fair enough. I'd be lying if I said you were the only big kid at this table. And I think I know what you mean, especially after all those romantic comedies we've watched from Juniper's stash. Like, in those things, first dates always seem to be... a little more eventful than us just lounging and ordering drinks?"
"Yeah!" Twilight said. "They're always a little more exciting? And definitely more expository. Like, we're supposed to do the whole 'getting to know each other' thing right now, aren't we?"
Sunset scrunched her jaw. "Are we? I mean, it's been several months since we met at the Friendship Games. We've had a bunch of outings and even sleepovers together. We've already talked to each other so many times about so many things—often right here in this very restaurant. Well, the original version."
Twilight "hmm"ed. "I suppose that is true. We do see each other almost every day." She giggled. "Wow. Should we even be calling this a 'first' date, then?"
"Now you're catching on. Trust me, Twilight," Sunset said, relaxing again. "We're not doing dating wrong. We just happen to have a leg up on the competition. The rest of the universe? They're all catching up to us."
Sunset put on a Cheshire grin, and leaned forward along the table, hands folded. "Though we really can do the whole interrogation thing, if you want. Quick: give me five likes, five dislikes. Do you have any pets? What do you want to be when you grow up? How many kids do you want? Five? Three? One and a half? Do you like long walks in the rain?"
"Oh, come on!" Twilight said amidst loud guffaws. "You already know all that stuff!"
Sunset put her fingers to her chin. "Hmmm. Yeah, I guess I do." She snapped her fingers. "Oh! What about burning secrets involving magic from other dimensions? Nobody ever asks about that."
Had Twilight not moved her face away from her drink a moment earlier, her spit take would have splashed Orange Surprise all over the table. "Oh my gosh, Sunset, stop, just stop!" she said, still laughing, and sinking into her seat.
Sunset laughed too. "No, I'm being serious! Could you imagine how many relationships could be saved if all of our significant others just came with instruction manuals?" She held up her geode pendant. "Or if everyone had one of these."
"Actually, you raise a good point," Twilight said, calming down. "But outside of the possibilities of that being straight out of one of Juniper's dystopia movies? That'd make things too mundane. I feel you need a little adventure, and a little pacing to go with it. All the surprises don't need to come all at once." She scoffed.
"Part of me can't believe I'm hearing this from the science nerd," Sunset said. "Advocating not knowing everything from the jump? Didn't you tell me you hated surprises?"
"Oh, totally. But this isn't quite the same." She leaned her shoulders over the table. "I mean, here I am, literally dating a girl from another dimension. Speaking as your girlfriend and as a scientist, there's so much I have yet to learn about you, and I'm absolutely looking forward to doing so." Twilight's smile widened. "Over lots of nights. That's not a surprise. That's Hearth's Warming, every day."
Sunset matched Twilight's smile. "Liking how you think. I mean, even more than usual."
Twilight shrugged with a tiny squeal, then added, "But, if I had your geode? Heck, if we both had them, and could constantly read each other? I'd never have to ask. There'd be nothing to discover. And no events over which we could bond or connect."
Sunset nodded. "I guess that's true. And the same goes for me, with you. I mean, I'm not supposed to use my powers except in emergencies to begin with, but that goes double for me when I'm around you."
"I appreciate it. But I already trust you." Twilight reached across the table, clasping Sunset's hands in her own. "Either way, I guess what I'm trying to say, is..." She looked straight at Sunset. "I like 'em orange and mysterious. With just the right amount of sweet."
Sunset's cheeks turned from orange to apple. "You're getting pretty good at that. The sweet-talking thing, I mean."
Twilight giggled. "I've been reading up."
Sunset firmed her grip on Twilight's hands. "And then 'experimenting'?"
Twilight giggled even more. "Oh, I have to. Some of the lines I come across are just the cheesiest."
Sunset lidded her eyes, looking straight into Twilight's. "What if I told you I'd be fine with every cheesy line in the universe so long as I heard them coming out of your mouth?"
Twilight froze with her own uncontrollable blush, locking her eyes to Sunset's, before remembering to take a deep breath for air several seconds later. "Okay, we can't just sit in here and hit on each other all day," she said after exhaling. "Can we?"
Sunset shrugged. "Why not?"
"Because..." Twilight desperately searched for an answer. "I don't know, because—"
"Exactly. Here's the other thing about dates. They can last as long as we need them to." Sunset let go of Twilight's hands, got up from her seat, and walked over to Twilight's side of the booth. "And we can do anything we want during them," she said, sitting next to Twilight.
Twilight pressed against Sunset with a dreamy sigh as her girlfriend slid in close. "Anything?"
"Name it." Sunset grinned. "Keep it legal, though. I like this place."
Twilight giggled, then put her index fingers to her lower lip, making a big show of thinking for a long time, with exaggerated "hmm"s. Finally, she answered with, "All right. Let's race."
Sunset gave a choked laugh. "Wow, I didn't know I was dating Rainbow Dash all of a sudden."
"No, seriously! I used to time myself all the time drinking my favorite shakes. It was fun."
Sunset's gaze turned curious. "Is it okay if I ask why?"
"Well..." Twilight's expression sobered. "When you're by yourself a lot? Like I was back in Crystal Prep? Let's just say it's easy to forget how lonely you are when you make games out of everyday life activities." She looked at Sunset with a happy smile. "So, I want to race. Not against myself anymore, but with someone else. To celebrate my not being lonely anymore. To celebrate having friends like you."
Sunset chuckled. "Now I almost do wish Rainbow Dash was here. She would have loved your speech just now."
Twilight scoffed. "Well, if you're that set on it, I could switch to contacts, we could stop at the local beauty supply store on the way home for rainbow dye, and I'm pretty sure I have a spare soccer ball in the basement somewhere—"
"Hon, I'm kidding. I'm so kidding." Sunset leaned in, nuzzled Twilight's nose with her own, and pecked her on the lips, relishing Twilight's giddy smile. She then poked Twilight's headwear. "Also, I'm sorry, but the humongous glasses are non-negotiable. The day you lose them is the day we can't be friends anymore, let alone girlfriends."
Twilight laughed loud and long. "I'll keep that in mind! But for now..." She turned to the orange smoothie. "You ready?"
Sunset grabbed her daiquiri from across the table, placing her straw near her mouth. "I'm ready."
"All right. Three... two... one!"
An imaginary gun sounded in the diner, and Sunset took the longest sip of her daiquiri that she possibly could. Seconds later, she felt the imaginary bullet from that gun penetrate her skull. She clutched her head with both hands. "Oh! Oh, my gosh! Oh, wow, sweet freaking Celestia, I totally forgot the hazards of agreeing to something like this!"
Twilight, meanwhile, slurped down her smoothie in calculated bursts, stopping every couple of seconds between each sip. By the time she was done, Sunset's daiquiri was still half full.
"Mwahahahahaha! Science wins!" Twilight crowed, raising her arms above her head, then lowering them, and wrapping one around Sunset. "See, you have to know your personal brainfreeze threshold. Which requires lots of testing over lots of smoothies, because everyone's is different. Why do you think I'm always drinking these? Other than because they're tasty."
"W-What, to prepare yourself for that fateful day in the unforeseen future when you'd land a girlfriend and be able to challenge her to a drinking contest?" Sunset sputtered.
Twilight shrugged, her face deathly serious. "Doesn't everyone?"
The two looked at each other in crushing silence—then burst into uncontrollable laughter, far louder than either of them had laughed up to that point. Other patrons turned to look at them, but neither of them cared. They rode out their mirth until they collapsed into each other in the booth seat, with Twilight in Sunset's arms.
"You know what? I think this is going to work out just fine," Sunset said with a sigh.
"Yeah. Also, I think Juniper's movies might be right after all? Just not in that super-directed, meticulously written sort of way. First dates are where you get to know each other. But the complexity of that process doesn't matter nearly as much as what you get out of it."
"Yep," Sunset said. "In the last half-hour, the most important thing I've learned is that the girl sitting with me needs a lot of love." She wrapped Twilight in a tight, warm hug. "Fortunately? I've got a whole lot to give her."
Twilight snuggled into Sunset's embrace. "And I know I got really lucky when I picked my first girlfriend." She paused, then added, "Also that she's really into my glasses? More scientific study is needed on the nature of fetishes."
"Dork," Sunset said, poking Twilight's glasses.
"Dork-lover," Twilight said, pecking Sunset on the cheek.
"Guilty as charged," Sunset said. "Not that that's any huge change. Really, when it comes down to it, I'm just hanging out with my best friend. Only now I can do this with her." Sunset leaned in, steering her lips towards Twilight's.
"Best friends forever, then," Twilight sighed, before the two finally kissed in earnest, tasting each other's drinks on their tongues.